The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Spiraea plant, botanically known as Spiraea media and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘SMSMBK’.
The new Spiraea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Grand Haven, Mich. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new compact and mounding Spiraea plants with attractive foliage and flowers and resistance to mildew pathogens.
The new Spiraea plant originated from an open-pollination during the summer of 2007 of Spiraea media ‘SSBLUE’, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Spiraea media, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Spiraea plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor during the summer of 2009 as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled environment in Grand Haven, Mich.
Asexual reproduction of the new Spiraea plant by softwood cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in Grand Haven, Mich. since the summer of 2009 has shown that the unique features of this new Spiraea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.